PatternBased

1997-Now | Projects

PatternBased was created by Joseph Minadeo in the mid/late 90's in Kent, Ohio and was originally just a domain name to host some mp3s and an IT resume. Over two decades, it has slowly and organically grown into a creative label with thousands of creations, hundreds of clients and with contributions from & support for artists around the world. PatternBased is currently run by Siori Kitajima and Joseph Minadeo from the PBHQ (AKA Bunny San Tachi Tiny Institute of Peace) in the Mojave desert.

Some of the significant projects of PatternBased over the years are music groups (Low in the Sky, Gnosotros, Hill Sleepers, Insect Sounds and Puffy Shapes), film scores, interactive installations and an occasional live event. Under Siori's direction, the visual, code and interactive elements of the label have increased greatly. The latest projects include OnomatoPedal, a family friendly audio/visual playground created with EarthQuaker Devices to explore Japanese Onomatopoeic words as well as PatternBased Catalog, a UI to search and listen to PatternBased's music catalog which is a collaboration between Joseph, Siori Kitajima and Laura Apetroaei.

The picture above is from PB's birthplace: Heliocentric Worlds of Sound, a small recording studio on N Mantua Street in Kent founded and funded by Dominic Bangera. Helio started with a Tascam MS-16 1" 16 track tape machine and Mackie 24x8 mixer. The picture features an IBM PS/2 which would run a MIDI only sequencer called Master Tracks Pro 4 which would drive external gear like an ASR-10 sampler and the original Nord Lead. The tape was striped with SMPTE timecode which would allow the computer/MIDI gear and analog tape to stay in sync. Bands that recorded there would stand at the mixer during mixdown to perform volume, EQ and effects sends by hand in real time, a task that soon would be easily automatable.